Ranging Behaviour of Commercial Free-Range Broiler Chickens 1: Factors Related to Flock Variability.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Taylor PS
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5532569 | biostudies-other | 2017 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:Little is known about broiler chicken ranging behaviour. Previous studies have monitored ranging behaviour at flock level but whether individual ranging behaviour varies within a flock is unknown. Using Radio Frequency Identification technology, we tracked 1200 individual ROSS 308 broiler chickens across four mixed sex flocks in two seasons on one commercial farm. Ranging behaviour was tracked from first day of range access (21 days of age) until 35 days of age in winter flocks and 44 days of age in summer flocks. We identified groups of chickens that differed in frequency of range visits: chickens that never accessed the range (13 to 67% of tagged chickens), low ranging chickens (15 to 44% of tagged chickens) that accounted for <15% of all range visits and included chickens that used the range only once (6 to 12% of tagged chickens), and high ranging chickens (3 to 9% of tagged chickens) that accounted for 33 to 50% of all range visits. Males spent longer on the range than females in winter (p < 0.05). Identifying the causes of inter-individual variation in ranging behaviour may help optimise ranging opportunities in free-range systems and is important to elucidate the potential welfare implications of ranging.
| S-EPMC5532570 | biostudies-other
Project description:Inhibiting impulsive, less flexible behaviours is of utmost importance for individual adaptation in an ever-changing environment. However, problem-solving tasks may be greatly impacted by individual differences in behaviour, since animals with distinct behavioural types perceive and interact with their environment differently, resulting in variable responses to the same stimuli. Here, we tested whether and how differences in ranging behaviour of free-range chickens affect motor self-regulation performance during a cylinder task. For this task, subjects must refrain from trying to reach a food reward through the walls of a transparent cylinder and detour to its open sides, as a sign of inhibition. Free-range chickens exhibited an overall low performance in the motor self-regulation task (31.33 ± 13.55% of correct responses), however, high rangers showed significantly poorer performance than the low rangers (23.75 ± 9.16% versus 40 ± 12.90%, respectively). These results give further support to the impacts of individual behavioural differences on cognitive performances. This is the first demonstration to our knowledge of a relationship between exploratory tendencies and motor self-regulation for an avian species.
| S-EPMC7013493 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Analysis of nucleic acid polymorphism in the flagellin genes of Campylobacter jejuni was used to investigate genetic diversity among Campylobacter spp. in a commercial broiler flock. Three hundred single colonies of C. jejuni were isolated from fecal samples collected weekly for 3 weeks immediately before slaughter. Both the flaA and flaB genes were amplified by PCR, and the PCR product was digested with the restriction enzyme AluI. The fragments generated were then analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Among the 300 recovered isolates, five different restriction fragment length polymorphism profiles were observed. Three of these profiles were dominant during the course of the study, and the other two profiles were detected at low frequency. Analysis of genetic variation in C. jejuni over the course of an experimental infection lasting 7 weeks indicated that there was no obvious drift in the flagellin gene type. These findings demonstrate that a range of bacterial genotypes can constitute the bacterial population within a commercial poultry flock, with the most likely sources of these types being multiple environmental exposure and/or genetic drift within the population. This degree of diversity must be considered in epidemiological analyses which utilize genetic typing methods that investigate Campylobacter contamination of any food source, including poultry, to ensure that the total gene pool for C. jejuni is evaluated.
| S-EPMC1389157 | biostudies-other
Project description:Campylobacter spp. contaminated poultry products are strongly associated with foodborne illnesses worldwide. Development of effective management strategies to reduce contamination by Campylobacter spp. requires an improved understanding of the numerous factors that drive these contamination processes. Currently, chicken farms are using more free-range chicken meat production systems in response to consumer preferences. However, Campylobacter spp. colonization has rarely been investigated on free-range broiler farms. The present study investigated the temporal and environmental factors influencing Campylobacter spp. colonization of free-range broilers as well as potential sources and genetic diversity of Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) and Campylobacter coli (C. coli) in commercial free-range broiler farms. Genetic linkages among the isolates were analyzed using flaA amplicon analysis. Campylobacter coli was first detected in fecal samples of a commercial free-range broiler flock on day 10 of rearing. Multiple genotypes of C. jejuni and C. coli were identified in this study. The farm environment was identified as a potential source of C. jejuni and C. coli colonization of free-range broilers. The dominant Campylobacter genotype varied between free-range broiler farms over time, with C. jejuni being the most frequently isolated species. These findings enhance the understanding of C. jejuni and C. coli colonization in free-range broiler farms and could inform the development of more effective intervention strategies to help control this important foodborne pathogen.
| S-EPMC7936128 | biostudies-literature
Project description:A free-range broiler breeder flock was studied in order to determine the natural patterns of Campylobacter colonization over a period of 63 weeks. Campylobacter sequence types (STs) were not mutually exclusive and on average colonized only 17.7% of the birds tested at any time. Campylobacter STs typically reached a peak in prevalence upon initial detection in the flock before tailing off, although the ST and antigenic flaA short variable region in combination were stable over a number of months. There was evidence that, with a couple of exceptions, the ecology of C. jejuni and C. coli differed, with the latter forming a more stable population. Despite being free range, no newly colonizing STs were detected over a 6-week period in autumn and a 10-week period in winter, towards the end of the study. There was limited evidence that those STs identified among broiler chicken flocks on the same farm site were likely to colonize the breeder flock earlier (R(2) 0.16, P 0.01). These results suggest that there is natural control of Campylobacter dynamics within a flock which could potentially be exploited in designing new intervention strategies, and that the two different species should perhaps be considered separately.
| S-EPMC4390391 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Despite continued efforts to improve biosecurity protocols, Campylobacter continues to be detected in the majority of commercial chicken flocks across Europe. Using an extensive data set of Campylobacter prevalence within a chicken breeder flock for over a year, multiple Bayesian models are presented to explore the dynamics of the spread of Campylobacter in response to seasonal variation, species-specificity, bird health, and total colonization prevalence. These models indicated that birds within the flock varied greatly in their response to bacterial challenge, and that this phenomenon had a large impact on the overall prevalence of different species of Campylobacter. Campylobacter jejuni appeared more frequently in the summer, while Campylobacter coli persisted for a longer duration, amplified by the most susceptible birds in the flock. Our study suggests that strains of Campylobacter that appear most frequently likely possess no demographic advantage, but are instead amplified due to the health of the birds that ingest it.
| S-EPMC7655537 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundFree-ranging narwhals (Monodon monoceros) were instrumented in Admiralty Inlet, Canada with both satellite tags to study migration and stock separation and short-term, high-resolution digital archival tags to explore diving and feeding behaviour. Three narwhals were equipped with an underwater camera pod (Crittercam), another individual was equipped with a digital archival tag (DTAG), and a fifth with both units during August 2003 and 2004.ResultsCrittercam footage indicated that of the combined 286 minutes of recordings, 12% of the time was spent along the bottom. When the bottom was visible in the camera footage, the narwhals were oriented upside-down 80% of the time (range: 61 100%). The DTAG data (14.6 hours of recordings) revealed that during time spent below the surface, the two tagged narwhals were supine an average of 13% (range: 9-18%) of the time. Roughly 70% of this time spent in a supine posture occurred during the descent.ConclusionPossible reasons for this upside-down swimming behaviour are discussed. No preference for a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction of roll was observed, discounting the possibility that rolling movements contribute to the asymmetric left-handed helical turns of the tusk.
| S-EPMC2238733 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli infections are a growing public health concern. This study analyzed the possibility of contamination of commercial poultry meat (broiler and free-range) with pathogenic and or multi-resistant E. coli in retail chain poultry meat markets in India. We analyzed 168 E. coli isolates from broiler and free-range retail poultry (meat/ceca) sampled over a wide geographical area, for their antimicrobial sensitivity, phylogenetic groupings, virulence determinants, extended-spectrum-?-lactamase (ESBL) genotypes, fingerprinting by Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus (ERIC) PCR and genetic relatedness to human pathogenic E. coli using whole genome sequencing (WGS). The prevalence rates of ESBL producing E. coli among broiler chicken were: meat 46%; ceca 40%. Whereas, those for free range chicken were: meat 15%; ceca 30%. E. coli from broiler and free-range chicken exhibited varied prevalence rates for multi-drug resistance (meat 68%; ceca 64% and meat 8%; ceca 26%, respectively) and extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC) contamination (5 and 0%, respectively). WGS analysis confirmed two globally emergent human pathogenic lineages of E. coli, namely the ST131 (H30-Rx subclone) and ST117 among our poultry E. coli isolates. These results suggest that commercial poultry meat is not only an indirect public health risk by being a possible carrier of non-pathogenic multi-drug resistant (MDR)-E. coli, but could as well be the carrier of human E. coli pathotypes. Further, the free-range chicken appears to carry low risk of contamination with antimicrobial resistant and extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli (ExPEC). Overall, these observations reinforce the understanding that poultry meat in the retail chain could possibly be contaminated by MDR and/or pathogenic E. coli.
| S-EPMC5694193 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND: Chicken anemia virus (CAV) is the causative agent of chicken infectious anemia (CIA). Study on the type of CAV isolates present and their genetic diversity, transmission to their progeny and level of protection afforded in the breeder farms is lacking in Malaysia. Hence, the present study was aimed to detect CAV from commercial broiler breeder farms and characterize CAV positive samples based on sequence and phylogenetic analysis of partial VP1 gene. RESULTS: A total of 12 CAV isolates from different commercial broiler breeder farms were isolated and characterized. Detection of CAV positive embryos by the PCR assay in the range of 40 to 100% for different farms indicated high level of occurrence of vertical transmission of viral DNA to the progeny. CAV antigen was detected in the thymus and in the bone marrow but not in spleen, liver, duodenum, ovary and oviduct by indirect immunoperoxidase staining. The 12 CAV isolates were characterized based on partial sequences of VP1 gene. Six isolates (MF1A, MF3C, M3B5, NF4A, P12B and P24A) were found to have maximum homology with previously characterized Malaysian isolate SMSC-1, four isolates (M1B1, NF3A, PYT4 and PPW4) with isolate BL-5 and the remaining two (NF1D and NF2C) have maximum homology both with isolates 3-1 and BL-5. Meanwhile, seven of the isolates with amino acid profile of 75-I, 97-L, 139-Q and 144-Q were clustered together in cluster I together with other isolates from different geographical places. The remaining five isolates with amino acid profile of 75-V, 97-M, 139-K and 144-E were grouped under cluster II. All the CAV isolates demonstrated omega values (Ka/Ks) of less than one (the values ranging from 0.07 to 0.5) suggesting the occurrence of purifying (negative) selection in all the studied isolates. CONCLUSION: The present study showed that CAV is widespread in the studied commercial broiler breeder farms. The result also indicated the occurrence of genetic variability in local CAV isolates that can be divided at least into two groups based on characteristic amino acid substitutions at positions 75, 97, 139 and 144 of the VP1 protein.
| S-EPMC2605446 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Granuloma disease in a flock of free range productive layers in the Netherlands in 2017 is described. The disease resembled granuloma outbreaks in layers caused by Tetratrichomonas gallinarum in 2013 and occurred in the same area in which the rearing farm considered as the source of the 2013 outbreaks was located. Between 55 and 84?weeks of age mortality was 20.3% (breeder's norm 3.9%). All dead hens examined (n?=?20) showed granulomas especially in liver and ceca. Nine hens with or without liver and/or ceca granulomas were examined for trichomonads in mentioned organs by in situ hybridization (ISH), nested PCR, and cloning and sequencing. Ceca were also examined by culture. T. gallinarum ISH was positive in all livers and ceca with granulomas and negative in case granulomas were absent. T. gallinarum strain 13/16632, which caused the 2013 outbreaks was found in 4/8 hens with granulomas. Moreover, other trichomonads were detected: a T. gallinarum strain GPO-like and a Simplicimonas sp. strain GABC1-like. Mixed infections also occurred. Infectious causes of granuloma disease other than the afore-mentioned trichomonads could be excluded. Trichomonad DNA was not detected in environmental samples and wild ducks originating from the farm of concern, except for one duck in which the same Simplicimonas sp. as in hens was detected, leaving the source of the T. gallinarum infection in hens unknown. It is concluded that the herein described granuloma disease likely was caused by T. gallinarum strain 13/16632. However, the pathogenicity of the other trichomonads found remains to be clarified.
| S-EPMC6853223 | biostudies-literature